‘Shadowrun Returns’ hacks its way into gamers hearts in June

By Anthony John Agnello Published April 10, 2013

shadowrun returns release date — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Members of the Kickstarter class of 2012 are starting to race towards completion. The $3 million-raising Double Fine Adventure Broken Age is facing imminent release, InXile Entertainment’s $3 million backed Wasteland 2 is expected out in October, and now Shadowrun Returns, the Hairbrained Schemes-developed RPG based on the science fiction classics of the 1990s, is expected out in June.

The studio announced on Wednesday that the game is now available to pre-order. Collector’s Edition pre-orders are available until Apr. 28, and afterwords all pre-orders will be through Steam. Android, iOS Mac, and Linux versions of the game will be available later this year, though the mobile editions of the game won’t support user-generated content like the PC editions.

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After raising $1.8 million via Kickstarter in 2012, Hairbrained Schemes initially pegged Shadowrun Returns for a January 2013 release. The studio delayed the game in November, however, primarily because it was building far more content than it had originally planned to. “We’ve backed off our original delivery date of 2013. It might’ve worked for the scope of the game we originally envisioned but as our ambitions (read that ‘feature list’) grew, so did the time we needed to deliver,” said Hairbrained Schemes, “Plus, we made a big move from our original top down camera to an isometric point of view and that took serious R&D time. Right now, according to our estimates, we’re looking at May or June.”

June will be an important month for the Kickstarter movement. Shadowrun Returns will be one of the first runaway crowdfunding success stories to actually get its game on the market. Will Shadowrun Returns live up to nearly two decades of fan expectations? An early demo of the game aired by the studio in March looks very much like the old RPGs that have maintained a cult following over the years.

We’ve reached out to Hairbrained Schemes to discuss release timing on other versions of the game and possible console ports, but as of this writing have not heard back from the studio.

Anthony John Agnello

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Anthony John Agnello is a writer living in New York. He works as the Community Manager of Joystiq.com and his writing has…

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